HBO series sparks ire of Mormons

No extra wives here, but they've got "big love," local followers say.

Susan Woodbury gets it all the time from people interested in her religion, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

"I can say in pretty much every conversation I've had in my life with non-LDS people, it comes up," said the only wife of Dr. Wayne Woodbury.

The questions have been more frequent since the family of seven moved to Savannah in 1996.

Commonly known as "the Mormons," about 4,000 members of the church call the Savannah area home, according to national spokeswoman Paula Wright.

Nearly a third of the nation's 5.6 million "Latter-day Saints" reside in Utah where early leader Brigham Young resettled the young church in 1846.

Until the practice was banned in 1890, male members were permitted to have multiple wives.

But that polygamist past has haunted the church for more than 100 years.

"To us, it's as ridiculous as saying 'Oh, you live in the South? Do you have slaves?' or 'Oh, you're Catholic? When are you going on your crusade?' " Susan Woodbury said.

A new big-ticket television series on HBO isn't going to make that work any easier.

"Big Love" premiered March 12 following the close of the sixth season of "The Sopranos." The series chronicles the lives of a successful Salt Lake City businessman, his three beautiful wives and their bizarre extended family who live on a rural Utah compound.

Played by actor Bill Paxton, Bill Henrickson and his three wives and seven children discretely claim to be followers of an early breakaway sect of the Mormons.

The show concludes with a disclaimer explaining that the LDS Church prohibits polygamy. In fact, any member adopting the practice today is excommunicated.

Still, state officials say there are as many as 40,000 polygamists living in Utah and Arizona.

Savannah residents Siri and Bart Davidson say polygamists are as foreign to them as they are to non-LDS members.

"I was aware of supposed communities where they allegedly practiced polygamy," said Siri Davidson, who grew up in Utah.

But she's never met a polygamist, she said.

Bart Davidson suspects he saw some homes of polygamists on a road trip to the south Utah desert.

A big house, at least 3,000 square feet, with multiple levels and entrances are some of the tell-tale signs, the Davidsons said.

Aside from religion, there are other differences between the fictional Henrickson family and real-life Mormon families, Siri Davidson said.

"There was so much unspoken contention between the family members and that is not like an LDS family," she said.

Played by Oscar-nominated actress ChloŽ Sevigny, second wife Nicki Henrickson is obsessed with dressing her children and redecorating her house.

"I don't think women in our church are like that," Davidson said. "Their focus is on education and family."

Partly out of curiosity, the Davidsons recorded the pilot of "Big Love" which ran all last week and watched it later. They also watched the show to understand just how much explaining they may have to do with their peers.

Since the one-hour series airs Sundays at 10 p.m., the Davidsons say they likely won't be staying up that late to become loyal viewers. And both agree with the church's official position that the show isn't healthy.

"'Big Love,' like so much other television programming, is essentially lazy and indulgent entertainment that does nothing for our society and will never nourish great minds," according to a March 6 statement from the LDS Church.

Followers are urged not to allow their children to watch the show and to instead, "follow a higher road of decency, self-discipline and integrity."